It’s Open Season in the West for Energy Companies

Interior Department Moves Ahead with Plans to Lease Tracts in Five State for a Little as $2 an Acre

By Sarah Okeson

Trump’s Bureau of Land Management tried to lease almost 12 million acres for oil and gas exploration last year, more than six times what the Obama administration tried to lease in 2016, and the Trump administration is poised to dump 1.4 million more acres on the market early next year.

About 1.5 million acres in five western states were previously scheduled for lease sales this month but action was postponed after a federal magistrate judge found evidence that the bureau “made an intentional decision to limit the opportunity” for environmentalists and others to comment on the proposed leases. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to lease this land for as little as $2 an acre.

ACTION BOX/What You Can Do About It

Contact Secretary Ryan Zinke and tell him that you want our nation’s Interior Department to protect our public lands, not lease it to oil and gas companies. Call him at 202-208-3100, reach out to him on Facebook, Twitter or send an email.

Much of the land that Zinke has offered for lease has drawn no interest from buyers. Oil companies bid on less than 7%, or 792,823 acres of the 11.8 million acres that Zinke offered in 2017. Last year, a federal oil-lease sale promoted as the largest ever in Alaska’s Arctic Reserve sold only seven tracts, or 0.8% of the 900 offered.

Drilling for oil and gas and coal mining on public lands accounted for an estimated 23.7%, or almost a fourth, of all carbon dioxide emissions from our country from 2005-2014.

Featured image: Oil and gas operations in the West. (IWS Energy Services)